A vet confirmed their injuries were consistent with a dog attack and tell-tale tracks were found in the wooded garden, where the animals lived in a secure enclosure.

‘It was such a horrible death and such a waste, they were lovely animals and brought us much pleasure,’ Mr Rayfield said.

‘I have been asking neighbours if anyone knows anything and some horse-riders said they had seen a Japanese akita and a bullmastiff prowling around.

‘Out-of-control dogs are a big problem in this area, there are some breeds of dog which should not be kept as pets.’ Mr Rayfield and his wife Anna – who first kept a wallaby as a pet after he spent time lecturing in Brisbane in the 1960s – had looked after their colony of the marsupials for seven years at their home in West Kingsdown, Kent.

They had high fences installed after a fox got in and killed one.

‘If a dog can do this to a wallaby, imagine what it could do to a sheep or a human being,’ said Mr Rayfield, 72.